40K more visit White Sands

Visitor increase brings $2.7 million more for surrounding communities, Alamogordo

John Bear—Daily News
Tom Gutierrez, of Albuquerque, looks at an exhibit at White Sands National Monument on Wednesday. It was his first visit to the Monument, which saw an increase in visitors between 2012 and 2013 in spite of a drop in national park visitors across the country during the same time period.

About 490,000 people visited White Sands National Monument in 2013, up more than 40,000 since the year before, according to a National Parks Report.

The report estimates that visitors pumped $24.5 million into communities surrounding the park — including Alamogordo, Las Cruces and El Paso — up from $21.8 million the year before.

"We are proud to be surrounded by such engaging and friendly communities that provide important amenities for our visitors," Superintendent Marie Frías Sauter said. "We appreciate the partnership and support of our neighbors and are glad to be able to give back by helping to sustain our local communities."

According to the report, visitor spending at the Monument helped support 307 jobs, up from 276 in 2012.

"National park tourism is a significant driver in the national economy–returning $10 for every dollar invested in the National Park Service," Frías Sauter said. "It's a big factor in our local economy as well."

The increase locally contrasts with a national drop in visitations, job creation and revenue generated by national parks between 2012 and 2013, according to the report.

Nationally, the report indicated $14.6 billion of direct spending by park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park, down from $14.7 billion in 2012.

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Visitors to national parks also decreased from 283 million in 2012 to 273 million in 2013, representing a 3.2 percent drop, the report states.

According to the report, the drop in visitors might be explained by a number of reasons including extreme weather like hurricanes, floods, fires and droughts; economic conditions and rising travel costs; human-caused oil spills

The most significant influences affecting visitation came from the shutdown of the federal government in October, 2013 and park closures related to Hurricane Sandy, according to the report.

In 2013, visitor spending supported more than 237,000 jobs nationally, with more than 197,000 of those jobs found in "gateway communities," down from 243,000 jobs nationally and 201,000 gateway community jobs in 2012, the report states.

Spending had a cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy of $26.5 billion, according to the report, down from $26.75 billion in 2012.

According to the 2013 economic analysis, most visitor spending went to lodging, food and beverages, gas and oil, admissions, fees, souvenirs and other expenses. The spending mainly supported jobs in the restaurant and lodging industries.

Last year, a similar report found that visitor spending supported jobs in restaurants, grocery and convenience stores, lodging and other amusement and recreation.

White Sands Chief of Interpretation Becky Burghart said visitor numbers are fickle in nature, so she couldn't claim to know why the Monument's numbers went up in 2013 but added parks do have a positive impact on local communities.

"National parks do have an economic impact," Burghart said. "It's great to have an amazing natural cultural resource in your backyard in places like Alamogordo. We really do contribute to the gateway communities. It's a great resource for the local folks. They can come out and enjoy their monument but it's also an economic impact."